Reborn as the First Boss, Book 14 Prologue (Patreon)

Prologue – Girls’ Night

The gods did not live in the mortal realm. They couldn’t, for their nature was that of belief given form and ideas canonized into shape. Even when they descended to the mortal plane as an avatar, it was still only a manifestation, a fraction of their power.

But that did not mean that the gods did not keep watch on the mortal world, and see what their followers were doing in their name. Indeed, most gods and goddesses spent most of their time either tending to their divine realm, or watching the mortals, to ensure that things went in the proper direction. However, there were multiple pantheons, with each of the main races having their own. Even the lowly goblins had a pantheon, though their gods were little more than beasts, like their followers.

Most gods were not ‘natural’. They were born of magic and belief, ideas given form. People believed a god was, and so the god came to be. This meant that most gods, by their very nature, could be changed by their followers, sometimes quite severely.

Some gods, however, were actually ascended beings. Individuals who, through effort, conquest, or trickery, gained enough power to overcome the barrier between mortality and divinity. Oh, it was rare. In fact, only twice had it happened.

The first had been Eroan Shaberos, a Witch and Alchemist that had been wronged early in her life, and turned to hexes, curses, and poisons to get her revenge. She rose through the Tiers, and managed to reach Tier 4. At some point, an unremembered god tried to destroy her, but her curses found their way to the god, and stole enough divinity for her to ascend, leaving the mortal realm, and becoming the elven Goddess of Misfortune and Infertility.

The second had been Krenrena. She had been a normal succubus, once. However, she had been ambitious, and she had made friends, and allies. Lilelin, the reigning Succubus Queen, had directed her followers to attack temples of Videa, the human Goddess of Love and Lust, and Zelene, the beastfolk Goddess of Passion and Lust, and desecrate their temples, rededicating them to her. Krenrena enlisted the aid of the two slighted goddesses, and, with that assistance, she managed to sneak into Lilelin’s divine realm and drug the goddess with a sleeping draught made by one of the gods of Alchemy, spiriting her away from her divine realm so that she could steal her divinity, and replace her.

That event had led to Krenrena, Videa, and Zelene becoming fast allies, despite the species barriers. It also led to a meeting of the gods, and a compact being made, to avoid such things in the future. Everyone realized that gods working to unseat gods of other pantheons and replace them with friendly mortals was something that could lead to disaster, for everyone. The compact kept such plots from happening in the future, but it did not erase what had already been done.

The three allies often gathered in one of their divine realms, sharing wine, and other pleasures, as well as allowing messages to pass between pantheons in an unofficial way. Today, they were gathered in Videa’s Palace of Love, because one of Videa’s longest-running jokes had, at last, run to its final conclusion. After all, it was Videa who had slipped the divine love potion into Zerat’s drink while he was speaking with Zevlo, causing the God of Death and Undeath to fall madly in love with the God of Life.

“Oh, Viddy, honey!” Krenrena smiled as she lay in the massive bed in the center of Videa’s domain, intertwined with two other divine bodies. “How are your humans reacting to Eztar finally getting put in a box?”

Videa laughed merrily. “Oh, they are all in a tizzy, Krenny! Most of the humans who call upon me are more or less fine with Zerat becoming God of Undeath and Death. The servants of Love do not usually call on Death, after all, so Eztar was just someone they prayed to during funerals and the like. But the Theocracy? Those fools are running scared, from what I’ve seen.”

“You’re taking this fairly well, aren’t you?” Zelene asked, from Videa’s other side. “I would have thought that, with so many of your followers caught up in that Theocracy nonsense, you’d be more concerned about how things will fall out and settle down there. But then, you’ve always managed to avoid getting twisted by the Theocracy, unlike the other human gods. Only you, Gatris, and Yton really escaped their claws, yes? Along with the minor gods that take up subordinate roles?”

Videa nodded once. “Gatris is God of the Sea. The humans who call to him are primarily sailors, and a good many of them pirates. They provide enough of a balance against the Theocracy’s meddling that things work out nicely. Same for Yton, if I’m honest. That man only has a head for crafting and craftsmanship, and cares nothing for mortal rules or laws. And the Theocracy learned early on that if they try to squeeze the crafters too hard, then they stop running out of the things they need to keep living their comfortable lives.”

The goddess grinned. “And as for my followers? The Theocracy actually finds them very useful, as they are. After all, allowing an openly acknowledged path for the sex trade cuts down on illicit ventures, especially since my church ensures that those who participate are healthy, eliminating much of the risk of disease or other nastiness. That means the sex trade in the Theocracy that doesn’t pass through my people is all the nastier things, like those who want the pleasure of the kill during the act. Those things are illegal, and the Inquisitors enjoy chasing the perpetrators down, wherever they might be.”

Zelene chuckled. “But they are so prudish! I thought they would have tried to stamp out that trade, not just regulate it.”

“They considered it, before they realized that my church was the second-largest in the Theocracy, behind Zevlo’s, and if I gave an edict denouncing them, their legitimacy would crumble. So, they content themselves with recruiting attractive Inquisitors to work under cover, and under covers, to get regular reports. To the people, though, they claim that having an acknowledged and legal means for the trade to progress helps reduce the temptations of forbidden fruits, and lessens the allure of heresy.”

Krenrena cackled. “Speaking of heresy, Viddy, I saw you prodding that priestess of yours to follow after my angel. You weren’t thinking of stealing her a way to your faith, were you?”

Zelene blinked, “Wait, you were serious when you said you got an angel to follow you? I thought they were entirely too ‘orderly’ to follow your brand of chaotic lust and passion. That’s why most of the angels don’t acknowledge me, either.”

Krenrena chuckled. “Yes, and it actually has to do with the way Viddy’s joke finished. She’s a succubus who took on angel traits with ritual magic. The perfect fusion of the two lines, actually. And she’s also the one that released Zerat, and the one who sent Eztar to meet him.”

Zelene looked over to Videa. “You never told us why you played that joke on Tarez, by the way.”

“Oh, Zelly, it was just a bit of fun. Let him run after Zevlo for a couple decades, and then slip him an antidote, and we’d all have laughs about it. Admittedly, I didn’t think Tarez would go so far as to rip himself in two. And by the time I found out about it, he’d already sealed his smarter half away, and become Eztar.”

Krenrena, grinned. “Do you think Zerat will replace Eztar in the Theocracy’s hierarchy?”

Videa laughed openly at that. “Oh, they already made offers. Trying to fold Zerat’s faith into the gap Eztar left, with most of the same clergy and the like. But Zerat openly pushes for the use of undead, which makes him firmly opposite Zevlo, Tamaris, and Cineas for moral reasons, while Wobris and Yton are hesitant, at best, because of the effects of undead labor on the economy and crafters. Gatris and I are neutral on it, though mostly because the undead don’t impact our domains too much.”

Krenrena traced a circle on Videa’s thigh with her finger. “You could chat with your partners in that pantheon, and suggest that they treat Zerat as one of the pantheon, but a dark part, that they only worship in places of death, or when grave deeds need to be done. They did similar with other human gods, right?”

“Treating him as one of the so-called ‘minor gods’ has been discussed by the Theocracy, but they come back to the uncomfortable truth that Zerat now controls every necropolis, cemetery, and unmarked grave in the country, which means that, if he gets angry or feels slighted, the dead might rise, all over the country. But they can’t just put him in Eztar’s place without causing a revolt by half the churches. It will be months, maybe years before the Theocracy figures it out, if they manage to at all. Their position was already crumbling, before this, and it has not grown stronger since.”